The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-05-05
CHRISTIANITY.
Its Present Outlook Presented and Iti
Power Stated.

Its Present outlook presented ana III
Power Stated.
Christianity has been said to be co
extensive with moral civilization. The
dictum is too trenchant. 1t is unjust.
not only to the great non-Christiar
81 stem, but to all the lower modes o.
faith. Even in the poorest fetichism
there is an ethical element. Unques
tionably, however, Christianity pre-
sents the highest standard. both ol
spiritual aspiration and of the conduct
Of life, even set before men. Indeed
one chief result of the application oi
the comparative method to the worlds
creeds has been to bring out this fact
with startling clearness 1.-The i'm
measurable superiority of this religion, ="
an eminent German savant character
istically observed to me, ''seems unfair
to the Others" Without discussing
that point, we may, 1 think, safely
draw from the indubitable fact this
practical conclusions: that no existing
form of religion can dispute the future
with Christianity. Too wild is the
imagination to be gravely entertained,
that the progressive races of mankind
and the leaders of the rest should pre-
fer the word of Confucius, of MOham.
med, of Gautama, to the word of Jesus
Christ; should exchange the bible foI
the Vedas or the Avesta- It is too
much to say that moral civilization is
conterminous with Christianity. 1t is
quite accurate to say that that mos,
precious of the ethical elements oi
the European and American life are
mainly derived from and are closely
bound up with this religion, which. as
the fittest seems marked out for sur
vival, in the struggle for existence
among the worlds faiths. But will it,
in truth, survive? Christianity
appears to many of the wisest to be at
the present day in deadlier peril than
it has been at any time during the
eighteen hundred years of its ex.
istence.
The special note OF the nineteenth
century is the stupendous progress of
The positive sciences. 1t has been
quantity said, that our planet has been
swept into different environments. Old
questions are transfigured in the light
Of new knowledge. The world OF
thought is revolutionized. l need not
dwell upon what is so familiar. But
what would specially call attention to
is this; that one result of our absorbing
devotion to physical science, SO abund-
antly recompensed, has been the
growth of new dogmatism, not less
tyrannous than any OF its predecessors;
q dogmatism which requires us to be-
lieve, under pain of intellectual reproba-
lion, that in cosmic dust and the laws OF
movement is the last explanation of the
universe at which we can arrive. Its
instrument of research is chiefly COM
parative analysis. Its philosophy is a
philosophy of RELATIVELY, for it regards
things as essentially constituted by the
sum of their relations. The inorganic
powers of matter furnish it with a suf-
ficient amount of vitality. :. The
facts of the material world lie before men
throughout the ages. Generation after
generation gazes at them and discerns
nothing beyond the dead letter of the
bare phenomena. At last gifted man
arises, whose eyes are opened to see
in them that which no one had before
seen; who reads their meaning and
formulates their law. What is it that
enables him to do this? An intuition
of genius. And what Is an intuition of
genius? What but virtually, an en-
ergy, presentiment a .divination of
the intellectP 1t is perfectly true that
the scientist uses the experimental
method to test and verify this prophet
ic anticipation. 1t is equally true that
an idea, priori is his primuna 7aoVens,
his point of departure. Some
god, some religion. humanity must
have. What god, what religion will it
be? Will the abstact God of deism
content us? Assuredly not. We want,
in Kant's happy phrase, "a god that
can interest us" Of pantheism we
may say, with strict accuracy, that
only in proportion as it ceases to be real
ly pantheistic does it become religious.
Absolute Being. without what are
called personal attributes, interme-
diate existence, devoid of all affec-
tions, can effect no devout aspiration,
inspire no holy action. Is there any
thestic conception which corresponds
so we'll with the needs of our intellect
tuu OuI uCdkU DIS uOOS tuO SuL loCidu
|. Such is the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Surely we may
ask, with far more reason than the He
brew poet, ''Who is so great god as
our God?' And to what teacher of
religion shall we 60 it not to him who
could say, 'tNeither was guile found in
his mouth" 81 speak of that which
have seen with my Father" Who
else has so known the absolute and
eternal? Adopt any theory you will of
the date, orogin or composition of the
| New Testament, and yet this compara-
BILE figure of the Great Master remains,
undimmed by 1.-The mists of falling
time," or by the dust of modern creti-
cism. Across the ages his message
falls upon our ears, amid the turmoil
of American or European critics, as
clearly as his scholars heard it first,
among the green hills or by the clear
streams of Gallilee: Il and the Father
that sent Me-" AS true now as it was
then is that saying traditionally attrib-
uted to Him: "He who comes near
Me comes near fire." "Never man
spake like this man." Who can be.
lieve that His word shall pass away
W. s. Lilly, in Forum.
UnSOcial Churches.
There are churches where the men,